ProDave

You want spring water constantly flowing so a constant flow into a holding tank that is always overflowing back to the source. Then it will probably want some treatment but you won't know until you get it tested. A farm near us has a similar system but the spring is a long way down the hill, so he has a hydraulic ram pump constantly pumping water up to an underground holding tank near the house, and from there a submirsible borehole pump keeps water in an accumulator at pressure for use. He only needed a UV treatment system.

We self use just by timing the ASHP to start it's water heating at 11AM and by using the big appliances, washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher one at a time around mid day. Solar PV diverter to send the rest to DHW consumes most of the rest. the ASHP heats the HW tank to 48 degrees leaving plenty of room for excess PV to heat it more. I recon about 1/3 of the PV production goes to the immersion heater. The only time we export is at mid day on a sunny day if nothing else is on and the PV can generate a little more than the immersion heater can absorb even at 100%. In the shoulder seasons I can optimise that further by using a 700W convector heater as an additional dump load, but we don't want that on in the summer so a little gets exported. Ours is east / west split to flatten the mid day curve a bit, but it is hampered by morning and evening shading from trees which has much more effect in the summer when the trees are in leaf. Where I think batteries start to make sense is on a larger system where it would indeed be very hard to self use it all in real time.

I can't see what the fitters could have done wrong unless they twisted the frame when they fitted it? To fit ours, the fitters lifted out the sliding sash to halve the weight to be lifted, fitted the frame with the fixed sash and then put the sliding sash back in. I really can't see anything they could have actually done to make it stiff. Is it a case the stiff one is just larger and more mass to slide? They are heavy, and not a door you would expect your granny to use with ease.

If the issue is voltage drop, then stopping the DNO's cable at the gate and running your cable from there, will not stop the volt drop. If anything it will increase it as your cable is likely to be smaller. I would go back to them to question the technical reason for this? Are they concerned Ze will exceed the maximum limit? If so the solution is not to shorten the run, but to increase the cable size they use. Can you post a plan of what they are proposing? there is usually a site plan showing what they connect and from where with the different size cables they are proposing.

East west split is not unique. Neither is ground mount. building a shed out of the structure I admit is less usual. But a commercially installed E/W split on a roof professionally installed is not unusual. And like any other system, if you can't fix it yourself, you get the installer to fix it for you.

Is this lift and slide? I see no obvious means od adjusting but there is a phone number on a label to request an adjustment guide.

Nothing about my system is that unique apart from I made my own solar PV diverter. A commercially installed system with a commercial PV diverter, and a little education for the users to time shift use of big appliances to the middle of the day should achieve similar results.

I once worked in an office where the lighting was all controlled by motion sensors. Every now and then the lights would go out, and someone had to get out of their chair and walk around a bit to re trigger the sensor.

In the 3 or more years mine has been running, I have exported just 310kWh, so good has been my self usage. Even if I was able to claim the pittance of 5.5p dumb export payment, I would have received £17.05 Just imagine how much extra an MCS install would cost Vs DIY, and then tell me the payback time of that extra cost of the install when that is all I would get, less than £10 per year.

Not always. If I need a pee in the night, the very last thing I want is the light coming on full blinding me and disturbing SWMBO. I operate in the dark in that situation.

The crux of that is how does the automation know what you want? e.g walk into the bathroom, have a pee, flush and walk out. Walk into the bathroom, sit on the pot and open your book. Walk into the bathroom undress and get into the shower. All 3 very different situations. show me a sensor that can 100% detect which of those 3 you are doing and operate the lights and fan accordingly?

My PV cost me £1500 4 years ago with some diligent buying and all DIY install. The savings have paid 2/3 of the cost already and with the higher prices now it won't be long before the savings have paid for it and it is then just a constant saving. I am managing to self use almost all I generate, so don't believe batteries make sense yet for a normal 4kW system but probably do for a larger system where it would be hard to self use it real time. I will probably look at a second off grid battery PV system on the roof of the car port when I get around to building that.

I had a customer phone me yesterday. "Can you come and look at my heating, it turns on and almost straight away the thermostat turns off"

Let the stone supplier / fitter worry about this. They will template it first usually with plywood or something and will make the end panel match the wall.

I don't know where their calculation gets it's figures. I thought OFGEM were cracking down and fining suppliers who charge too much per month? I tried to change mine using the self service function on their website but it was advising me to increase, not reduce the monthly payment, even though just keeping it the same would over pay based on the last 12 months actual usage. So I sent an email outlining my calculations and they agreed.

I just put mine DOWN by £40 per month and will keep it at the lower level in anticipation of the £400 grand from the government. for at least 10 months.

Take the opportunity to replace the oven and charge it from the tenants deposit.

Ours seem to have a lot more friction and wind permitting, stay at any angle you choose , even one that would let the rain in.

Wood Burning Stove

Fit the WBS and use that. Plug in electric heaters on other rooms if needed. Fitting a WBS to our static caravan was one of the best things we did to see us through a particularly bad winter.

Multiple zones per thermostat is a standard function of a typical manifold control box. Don't over complicate it, floor sensors not needed, just use room thermostats.

If you are thinking of Octopus, PM me for a referal code that will get you £50 credit.

Renewable Energy?

I must have a look at that. Last time I used Spice, it was a command line interface, and it was quite a task to integrate it into ORCAD (which I still use) to run a simulation direct from the schematic entry tool. I see they don't have a Linux version, I will have to see if the windows version runs under WINE.

When @Radian has designed the "fluff sensor" that stops the TD as soon as the required fluffyness has been reached, even though it will not be "dry" he will have a worthwhile product.